Farah lies where the mountains of western Afghanistan give way to the plains of Sistan. Its capital, also called Farah, stands about 730 metres above sea level on the Farah Rud, at a point that once commanded the northern entrance to Sistan and the caravan road between Kandahar and Herat. Few places can trace their name so far back: Farah has kept almost the same name since the first millennium BCE.
Mountains, plains and rivers
The Farah Rud crosses the centre of the province from east to west, and the Khash Rud runs along its southern edge. South of the Farah Rud the land opens into desert plains, while north and east of the city it grows increasingly mountainous. Both rivers flow on towards the Sistan basin, and the shallow lakes of Hamun-e Saberi and Hamun-e Puzak reach into the province’s south-western corner.
The district of Lash-e Juwayn, in northern Sistan, also belongs to Farah. The climate is arid and hot, well suited to plants that need plenty of sun and little water.
An ancient crossroads
Farah has been identified with Phrada, the Achaemenid capital of Drangiana, which Alexander the Great renamed Prophthasia. Around the end of the first century BCE, Isidore of Charax described Phra as a ‘very great city’ on the overland route between the Levant and India. Later it was a stronghold on the eastern frontier of the Sasanian empire.
In the tenth century Muslim geographers described a large town commanding some sixty villages, with a mixed population that included Christians; under the name Aprah it was the seat of a Nestorian bishop from the eighth to the twelfth century. After the Mongol invasions the city declined and changed hands many times. It became a lasting part of the Afghan state in 1862.
The old walled town on the right bank of the river now stands in ruins. Modern Farah grew on the opposite bank from the 1930s, after the town became a municipality in 1933, and its bazaar became one of the largest between Herat and Kandahar.
People and harvests
About four in five people are Pashtuns, among them Alizai, Barakzai and Nurzai; Tajiks form the next-largest group, and there are smaller Baloch, Hazara and Aimaq communities. Pashto and Dari are both widely spoken. Farmers grow wheat, rice, maize and barley along the rivers and keep cattle, sheep, goats and camels.
Pomegranates are Farah’s best-known fruit. Orchards covering more than 8,000 hectares grow mainly around the provincial centre and in Pusht Rod, Khak-e Safed, Anardara and Bala Buluk; Anardara’s name itself means ‘pomegranate valley’. Date palms have grown here and there in the province for a long time, and the hot, sunny climate has encouraged new date orchards.